A Company of Heroes
by MissOneDayAmericanDream
Summary: Rosalie didn't know it then but that was the beginning of a friendship she would remember for the rest of her life, much like many of the ones she would encounter over the next three years.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, guys! So, for anyone who came here from the other story that this is a re-write of, I hope you enjoy this one just as much as the other, and there are some major improvements to the grammar, I noticed in my first chapter that there was some switching around with the tenses which I apologise for. For this one I'm going to try and stick to the script a little less and try and make it more my own.**

**For anyone who is totally new to this story and is confused by the paragraph above, this is a re-write of one of my previous stories that I have now taken down. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS!**

**Disclaimer: This goes for all chapters, I do not own Band of Brothers, I only own anything you don't recognise from the series/book etc. I own Rosalie Baker. That is all.**

**I completely respect and admire any WWII veterans and anything in this story is not meant to offend or tarnish reputations of real life people, characters will be based off the HBO series. **

**Summary: The journey of Medic Private Rosalie Baker through WWII.**

A Company of Heroes

_December 8th 1941 _

Rosalie Baker carefully appraised her appearance in the mirror of her bedroom. She wore a black, button down dress with a collar and short sleeves; it was clinched at the waist with a wide black belt and loosely fell just above her knees and swayed when she walked. One side of her shoulder length dark blonde curls was pinned behind her ear with a simple, yet elegant twist. As she was only at her house in her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, her face had minimal make up, just some powder to keep her ivory complexion from shining and the slightest bit of mascara to accentuate her top lashes. She had decided not to go with lipstick and instead don her natural rose pink. Her emerald green eyes shined, she was proud of herself for this casual, pretty look.

But something was missing; she chewed her bottom lip and furrowed her delicate brow as she tried to determine what it was. Eventually she decided on a thin cardigan which she rolled up at the sleeves.

"Rosalie, get down here! We're all waitin' for ya!" She heard the voice of one of her older brothers, Jack.

"I'm coming!" She replied and hurried to slip her black flats on and bounce down the stairs. As she rounded the corner at the bottom she almost knocked said brother down.

"Whoa! Slow down there, sport." He chuckled as he ruffled her hair. Jack was much taller than her, at the age of twenty-one he was a military man, both her brothers were. Noah was twenty-four and much more mature than both Jack and Rosalie. They were both marines and it was a miracle that they were both on leave together over Christmas, one that she was thankful for. Rosalie had just come home for Christmas after her first semester at Brown University.

She swatted his hand away and pushed past him as she straightened out her hair and smoothed down her dress. Jack followed her into the dining room where her parents and Noah were all sat around the long table; they all looked up at her arrival.

"Ah, the princess has arrived." Noah teased with a playful smirk.

Rosalie reacted by sticking her tongue out as she took a seat opposite him and her mother, Vivian, who smiled good naturedly at her children's play. Her father, Nathaniel sat at the head of the table reading the paper and she only now noticed her father's shocked look as he read the front page.

"Good morning, dear." Vivian greeted.

"Good morning, mother." She smiled. "Good morning, father." She repeated to the middle aged man at the end of the table.

"It certainly is not." He grumbled.

"What's wrong, Dad?" Jack asked, taking a huge bite from his bagel.

"Pearl Harbour."

"What?" Noah asked.

"Pearl Harbour." He repeated. "It's been attacked."

"Attacked?" Her mother gasped. "Attacked by whom?"

"The damn Japanese!"

"Are you sure?" Jack asked, not quite believing what he was hearing.

"Sure? Of course I'm sure! Have a look for yourself." He threw the paper across the table to Jack who studied the headline closely. Noah walked around the table to read over Jack's shoulder silently.

Rosalie and Vivien exchanged identical looks of shock and worry across the table. This almost certainly meant that Jack and Noah would be called back from leave and probably go to war.

Rosalie took a long drink from her orange juice as she contemplated what this meant. Nathaniel, Jack and Noah left the room to discuss this news and her mother silently began clearing plates from the table. The boys had left the newspaper on the table next to her. She decided to read the article for herself. Underneath the story there were advertisements of a draft for all the men in the country of an appropriate age and, for the first time ever, the military were advertising for women. The description read:

_Female Volunteers wanted,_

_Will have to pass physical, psychological and medical tests etc._

_Will be trained as nurses and medics,_

_Involvement in combat will be necessary,_

_Will receive same level of training as males,_

_Ages 18 – 35 welcome._

The rest of the description included various details of pay and how to volunteer.Rosalie silently took the paper up to her room and put it in her bedside drawer.

The next day when she came down for breakfast she brought with her the newspaper neatly tucked under her arm. When she sat down she placed it on her knee under the table.

"Your brothers have been called into service." Her mother spoke first.

"It was expected." Her father stated solemnly.

It was at this moment that she decided to place the paper on the table in front of her. "They want women." She said softly.

Everyone looked at her curiously. She picked up the paper and pointed to the advertisement. "They want women to volunteer." She repeated. "I want to go."

"No way." Noah cut her off immediately.

"I could help."

"Your brother is right." Her mother said sternly. Vivian Baker didn't often speak sternly but when she did she meant what she said. But Rosalie was her mother's daughter after all, and she was just as stubborn.

"How? If I went, I could help, I could-"

"I said no." Vivian repeated.

She turned to her father, eyes pleading for him to support her. He said nothing, no grant of permission but no objection either.

"I don't need your permission. I'm eighteen, almost nineteen years old, I'm not asking, I'm telling."

Her mother's eyes widened at her defiance.

"Rosalie, this isn't a game. This is war, you could die." Noah's voice rose slightly as he tried to drill this into his sister.

"You think I don't know that?" She retorted eyes burning fiercely.

"You really think you can do this?" Jack asked from next to her. While he had said nothing at first he used those few minutes to think about what his baby sister was proposing.

"Honestly, I don't know. But I'm determined to fight for my country."

"Then you should go for it."

"Jack!" Vivian and Noah scolded him for encouraging her. Couldn't he see that she was just putting herself in danger needlessly?

"What? If she thinks she can do this I have faith in her and so should you." Jack explained calmly. Rosalie smiled at him and mouthed a _thank you _to him while the people opposite her were reeling.

"It's not about having faith in her it's about keeping her safe!" Noah hissed leaning forward slightly.

"I don't need to be protected!" Rosalie protested to deaf ears.

"Nathaniel, do something!" Vivian pleaded with her husband.

This made everyone silent to see what the head of the family had to say.

"I think… that if Rosalie would like to fight for her country then I am incredibly proud of her for making this decision. Now, I'm not saying I like the idea but who are we to stop her from doing what she wants, think about it, in all her life if Rosalie wants something, she gets it. I have a feeling this time isn't gonna be any different." He drawled out in his heavy southern accent. And that was that, Rosalie was applying to the military.

The next day, Noah and Jack had left to go back to base. Knowing it would be a long time before they were all reunited as a family the goodbyes were tearful on Rosalie and her mother's part. The men all acted as such and grunted their goodbyes, but everyone understood each other.

"I know you don't want me to do this, but I would like to do it knowing I have the support of _both _my brothers." Rosalie said to Noah on the porch of their house before him and Jack got into the military car.

Noah sighed then leaned down to hug her. As he did he whispered in her ear, "I will always be proud of you, no matter what you do."

She blinked and a stray tear escaped from her eye, with a sniffle she nodded to show she understood.

"Come on, Jackie-boy, let's go!" He called to Jack who was saying goodbye to their parents.

When Jack came out, he ruffled Rosalie's hair with a grin; instead of pushing him away like she normally would she pulled him in for a hug and laughed with him. This is how she wanted to remember her brothers, with smiles and laughter and playfulness.

"Beat it." She smiled as she pulled away.

"I'll see you back here when it's all over." He promised her and again, she nodded.

"I look forward to it." She smiled.

Over the next week Rosalie went to the local Military Office in her area and enlisted, she had passed her psychological and medical evaluations, today was her physical one. She was in a group of about ten women ranging from all ages; she thought she was one of the youngest though.

They were tested on speed, strength and endurance. Only the ones that were of an acceptable standard made it through, three quarters of the group did and Rosalie was included in this. The next day they were instructed to come back to choose which area of the military they would be enlisted in.

After hearing about the paratroopers, a new regiment, who were predicted to be the best she decided that this would be the best option. The extra pay they received was a welcome bonus too.

The next day she received a letter that a military vehicle would be coming to her local Military Office to take her to Camp Toccoa, Georgia where she would train for the war.

Sat on the Military bus on her way to Georgia she held the silver cross on her necklace that her mother had given to her earlier that morning. Rosalie wasn't a particularly religious person, but her mother was.

"_I'll pray for you." She had promised as she gave her the chain._

"_I know you'll make me proud, sweetheart." Her father had kissed her forehead._

"Penny for your thoughts?" The girl in front of her turned around with a kind smile. Her wide chocolate eyes were curious and her pretty face was framed with soft brunette waves.

"Just thinking about home." Rosalie replied.

"Already?" The girl's eyes widened, she looked to be about the same age as Rosalie maybe a year or two older at the most. "I'm Allie." She stuck her hand over the back of the seat for Rosalie to shake.

"Rosalie."

"Pretty." Allie complimented. "Where you from?"

"Charleston. You?"

"Charlotte."

Rosalie didn't know it then but that was the beginning of a friendship she would remember for the rest of her life, much like many of the ones she would encounter over the next three years.


	2. Chapter 2

**I had fun with this one, it was nice to write *SPOILER ALERT* a fight scene. **

**Thank you for the people who favourites/alerted now I jusy need some reviews *hint, hint* **

**Enjoy chapter 2 guys.**

Following Allie off of the military bus Rosalie breathed in the warm Georgia air.

_It begins here. _She thought, eyes closed.

"Rosalie, come on." Allie smiled over her shoulder.

Rosalie easily fell into step beside Allie as they followed the other women who were following an army officer of some sort. Suddenly all the women turned their heads to cat calls and wolf whistling coming from across the field by the mess hall. There was a group of men in their khaki army pants and white t-shirts appraising the new girls entering new territory.

Across the field stood George Luz, Bill Guarnere, Warren "Skip" Muck, Frank Perconte and Walter "Smokey" Gordon. They had all been at Camp Toccoa for about a week and had been warned about the arrival of the women; it was just by chance that they happened to be walking to the mess hall for lunch as they had pulled up. One girl imparticular had caught their eye, the reason being she wore a bright red dress that immediately drew your attention. She was walking next to a girl with chocolate brown hair and they both looked about the same age, eighteen, maybe nineteen. They were obviously trying to avert their eyes away from the boys but couldn't stop the amused smiles gracing their faces.

"Hey, red!" Luz shouted, she didn't turn.

When Rosalie heard one of them shout "red" she didn't understand right away so carried on walking. The man shouted it another two times before her eyes became downcast and she remembered exactly what colour she was wearing. She quickly looked around to check that she was the only one wearing red and came to the conclusion that he was trying to get her attention. She stopped and turned towards the group of men not sure which one it was she was meant to be addressing, they quieted immediately to see what she would do. She raised her right hand and flitted her fingers in a flirtatious wave to which the men all cheered.

At that moment Allie grabbed Rosalie's raised hand and dragged her back to the group of women that they now had to catch up to.

Luz and the boys watched her friend drag her away with satisfied smiles on their faces.

"Come on, boys, let's go eat." Bill drawled out in his thick Philly accent and they all followed him into the mess hall.

After getting their food they joined some of the other Easy Company men.

"The broads are here." Perconte announced sliding in opposite Joseph Liebgott.

"Oh yeah?" Joe asked, shovelling mashed potato into his mouth. "Any talent?"

"Why don't you ask Luz? He seemed eager to get the attention of a blonde in a red dress." Muck laughed.

"A lady in red huh, Luz?" Joe teased.

"Shut up." George protested.

"When do you think they'll be joining us?" Floyd Talbert asked from the other end of the table.

"Didn't Winters say that they're going to train them for a week on their own so they can get used to it and have the option to back out and all that shit?" Donald Malarkey said.

"Yeah, then they'll be sorted into companies." Carwood Lipton clarified. "So you gotta leave 'em alone until then."

That first week had been brutal. Rosalie had never worked so hard in her life. Half the women that she arrived with had left; some more had joined them along the way, and the most notable, a brute of a woman named Marla. Rosalie had never hated anyone in her life but she physically hated this woman. Ever since she had arrived all she had done was point out that she was better than everyone else, that she was more physically fit than everyone else, that she was the only one who deserved to really be there. The last straw had been when she had pushed Allie after she had bumped into her by accident on one of the obstacle courses.

_Allie was so focused on getting to the end that she hadn't noticed Marla stop moving in front of her just balancing on one of the tree stumps over the mud, it was too late when she looked up, she was half way through the air jumping from one stump to another when she collided with Marla and knocked her face first into the mud. Marla let out a feral growl worthy of a wild boar. Allie immediately stepped off the log to help Marla out of the mud but the beast of the woman stood on her own and shoved Allie so hard that she would have fallen if not for Rosalie standing behind her and catching her. Marla turned to walk away, grumbling something about "stupid, pretty girls" but Rosalie just couldn't let her get away with that. _

"_Hey! Don't you dare walk just away from her. Apologise." Rosalie demanded coming to stand face to face with Marla. She would have squared up to her but that was kind of impossible with their differing sizes. Marla outdid Rosalie in height and width. _

"_Okay, I'm sorry that your friend is such a klutz." Marla snorted._

"_Excuse me?" Rosalie snapped._

"_Rose, it's okay, just leave it." Allie tried to pull Rosalie away._

"_No, Allie, she owes you an apology." Rosalie pulled her arm out of Allie's grasp. "Ever since she got here she's been walking around like Mr Big shot, thinking she's better than everyone else. Well you know what? You're not. You were the one who stopped short just then and that's why Allie knocked you into the mud."_

"_You better watch your mouth, little girl." Marla snarled cracking her knuckles._

_At this, Rosalie let out a loud laugh. "You're actually cracking your knuckles? Maybe I'd better just roll up my sleeves to match your cheesiness." Some of the girls around them chuckled._

_What none of them had noticed was that some of the men from easy company had heard the commotion on their way back to their barracks and stopped, hoping to see a chick fight. When they heard Rosalie's sarcasm some of them laughed and began rooting for her._

_Marla was now fuming and breathing hard through her nose, her face turning a bright shade of red. She quite reminded Rosalie of a bull ready to charge. She quirked an eyebrow. "What? No manly retort for me? What's the matter Marla? Not used to people not being afraid of your she-manness?"_

_At that moment the crowd gathered, including the men, watched Marla charge and rugby tackle Rosalie to the mud._

"_Get off me you brute!" Rosalie shouted and kneed Marla in the stomach which caused her to roll to the side holding her middle. _

_Growing up with two brothers meant that Rosalie knew how to fight._

_Rosalie stood and dusted herself off, she wouldn't kick Marla when she was down; she knew how to fight but she refused to fight dirty._

_No sooner had she stood she felt Marla tackle her legs tripping her back down into the mud. Marla was now on top of her and punched her right in the mouth, splitting her lip._

_At this some spectators, including Allie and a few of the Easy men stepped forward to pull the giant woman off Rosalie. This was until they watched Rosalie head-butt Marla, catching her straight on the nose, hearing a crack and watching blood spurt from between Marla's fingers which were now over her nose. She groaned and again rolled off of Rosalie and sat in the mud in disbelief._

_Rosalie sat up and looked down at her clothes covered in mud; she put a hand to her mouth and brought her fingers back, seeing the blood she swore under her breath. Then a hand was stuck out in front of her, she looked up to see one of the men that had been shouting her when she first arrived a few days ago. _

"_Need a hand, Red?" George grinned down at her._

_She smiled and took his hand gratefully. When he pulled her up he kept hold of her hand and shook it gently. "The name's George." He smiled._

"_Rosalie." She returned._

_Only now did she notice the men dispersed in the crowd around her and Marla. Everyone looked at her expectantly, it seemed like the women were afraid to speak in front of the men from awkwardness. Finally, she just smiled and spread her arms either side of her as if she was performing. "Enjoy the show, boys?"_

_The men just chuckled and shook their heads', turning to walk away. "See you around, Red." Luz said as he followed the rest of the men._

The women were now sat in a large room waiting to hear what company they would be in. Hearing her name, she looked up. "Baker, Rosalie?"

She stood at attention. "Sir?"

"Captain Sobel, Easy Company."

She was handed her uniform. "With me, Baker." Captain Sobel walked out of the room and she hurried to catch up with him.

On her way out she noticed Marla glaring at her, white tape covered her nose, the term 'if looks could kill' came to mind.

On the way to wherever they were going Sobel had handed her a timetable which included P.T., weapons training, hand to hand combat, military strategy, and for her, medical training.

"Permission to speak, Sir?"

"Granted."

"Where are we going?"

"The men's barracks, I assume you want to meet your comrades."

"Yes, Sir." Rosalie was slightly nervous.

When they arrived at their destination Sobel slammed open the door and immediately all the men stood to attention.

"At ease." Sobel said.

"Boys, we have a new recruit, Private Baker." Sobel gestured to Rosalie.

"We are under strict orders to treat her no different than any of the men." He ordered sternly. "Baker, you have five minutes to familiarise yourself with the men then go back to your barracks and change into your P.T. gear. We're running Currahee." Sobel informed her and walked out the door, leaving her at the mercy of the men.

It was quiet for a second before a familiar voice boomed through the room. "Eeey! It's Red!" Luz grinned, cigarette hanging from his mouth.

"How you doin'? I'm Bill." Guarnere stepped forward and shook her hand. "This is Joe." He gestured to Joe Toye who was sat on a bunk behind him. Joe nodded with a smile.

"Hi ma'am, I'm Eugene Roe, the other medic." Eugene stepped forward and shook her hand politely.

"Welcome to Easy." Joe Liebgott smiled at her.

"You'd better go change into your P.T. gear; Sobel's a tough son of a bitch." Donald Malarkey, a young man with red hair warned her.

"That's what I hear." Rosalie nodded. "Guess I'll see you in five minutes." Rosalie turned to walk back outside.

"Sure thing, Red." George called after her.

"Thank fuck we didn't get the manly one." Joe Toye laughed.

"Whaddya think fellas?" Bill asked the guys' opinion on Rosalie.

"I think we got lucky." Perconte said.

Overall the boys seemed relieved to have gotten the famous lady in red.

Back at the women's barracks Rosalie ran into Allie. "Hey, how were the boys?" Allie asked.

"Very welcoming." Rosalie smiled.

"I'm in Fox Company." Allie told her.

"How're your boys?"

"I'm going to meet 'em now." She said and headed for the door. "Oh and good luck with Captain Sobel." She teased before she left.

Rosalie picked up a pair of rolled up socks and threw them in the direction of her friend but she was already gone, instead they hit Marla, who had just walked in the door.

"Just my luck." Rosalie hissed under her breath. She turned toward the woman whose eyes were now wide with shock. "Marla, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that." She apologised sincerely and not just about the socks.

Marla just pushed past Rosalie and went straight to her bunk. Rosalie sighed and headed out to where the men and Sobel were waiting for her.

"Ah, Baker, thank you for joining us." Sobel said sarcastically.

"Apologies, Sir."

As they marched to Curahee, Rosalie met some more of the men including Muck, Grant, Shifty, Talbert, Bull, Smokey, Hoobler, Webster and Blithe. She had also been introduced to Cobb after he made a snide comment about her gender.

After the Curahee run, Lieutenant Winters had introduced himself, along with Lewis Nixon.

Rosalie easily fell into the group like she had always been there and found herself thankful that she had been chosen for Easy Company.


	3. Chapter 3

**I would like to thank my reviewers, I love you guys!**

**Endipseles: **Congrats on first review and I'm glad you liked it. It's good to know that you can see improvements. I'm always looking to better my work so thanks for the recognition. Hope you enjoy this one too!

**Rose2621: **Thank you, glad you like her.

**LauRa-ReaDinG-XoX: **I can never get enough of it either, it's just so good! I'll do my best to put more detail in for you. Thanks for the feedback.

**Dixie: **Thank you, that's so sweet!

**hodhod2011danger: **It's good to know that you've noticed improvements and I know exactly what you mean about the other one being rushed, I felt the same way. I'll try not to do that with this one. Thanks for the positive feedback.

_1942_

Rosalie had been at Camp Toccoa for about two months now and she surprisingly easily fell into the step of military life. She'd been given three nicknames so far, Leigh, Red and Doc. She honestly didn't mind, most of the men had nicknames so it made her feel more like part of the group. Sobel had been giving them hell every day, all the men seemed to hate him, Rosalie didn't like the man, but she didn't hate him either. By her opinion he was preparing them for war. War certainly wouldn't be easy so why would the training be? If there was one thing he was giving them, it was brotherhood, in Rosalie's case it was obviously sisterhood. He gave them a common enemy, something for them to bond over. He had brought them together.

Rosalie pondered this in the burning heat of Georgia as they waited for Captain Sobel to come and start yelling at them.

"You people are at the position of attention!" He shouted, walking down the first line of us, which included Rosalie, she cringed as he slowed in front of her but felt a pang of relief as he carried on to find another victim. He stopped in front of Frank Perconte. "Private Perconte, have you been blousing your trousers over your boots like a paratrooper?"

"No, Sir."

"Then explain to me the creases at the bottom."

"No excuse, Sir." Perconte stared ahead of him, expression neutral but Rosalie knew him better than that. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed his clenched fists, a tell-tale sign that he was annoyed.

"Volunteering for the parachute infantry is one thing, Perconte, but you've got a long way to prove that you belong here. Your weekend pass is revoked." Then Sobel looked for his next victim, his eyes landed back on Rosalie, her feminine features catching his eye. She could almost see the glint in his eye at the thought of calling out this woman in his company. He strode towards her. "Name?"

"Baker, Rosalie, Sir."

"Where're you from, Baker?" He was so close that Rosalie could feel his breath on her face.

"Charleston, South Carolina, Sir."

"Well, Baker, you better be able to keep up with this training, if not you're out. There will be no shortcuts or easy way outs just because you're a woman."

"No, Sir. I don't expect or need any, Sir."

He raised his eyebrows and went to criticise somebody else.

At first the fact that he singled her out because she was a girl bothered her but now she had learned to expect it.

"Name?" Sobel asked further into the formation.

"Luz, George."

He took away his weekend pass too. He went to several other men and took away their passes including Sergeant Carwood "Lip" Lipton, Donald Malarkey and Joseph Liebgott before deciding to take all of their passes.

This was the one of the only things that truly annoyed Rosalie; for all their hard work they always got punished, be it having their passes revoked or running Curahee.

"I will not take you to war in your condition!" He shouted at the front of them all. "Thanks to these men and their infractions, every soldier in the company who had a weekend pass has lost it. Change into your P.T. gear; we're running Currahee."

"Surprise, surprise." Rosalie muttered to Floyd Talbert next to her. At first Floyd had kept his distance from her. It was like he didn't how to act around a female soldier. They had all been told to treat her the same as they would any other soldier in the company but Floyd was such a gentleman that he just couldn't bring himself to treat her like one of the men so there was always some awkward tension between them. She remembered one of the few weekend passes they had been allowed to have when she got to know the blonde soldier.

_They had all been out drinking in the local town and different groups had dispersed around in different bars. Somehow, Floyd and Rosalie had ended up sat at a table alone in one of them. This was the first time they had really been forced to be alone together and the awkwardness was there. They could both feel it and so tried to make small talk but the conversation was stiff. _

_Eventually, Rosalie had been asked to dance by a civilian man and so Floyd had been left alone with his drink. After a few minutes Floyd watched as the man led Rosalie outside, he was stumbling he was so drunk and after about ten seconds of deliberating he decided to follow the pair, just to make sure she was okay._

_Whilst they had been dancing, Sam, as Rosalie had learned, whispered in her ear. "Let's go somewhere." He drawled out slowly, obviously drunk._

"_I don't think so-" She protested at first._

"_Relax, sweetheart, just to talk." He persuaded and started to lead her off the dance floor by her hand._

_Once outside, he immediately pushed her up against the wall aggressively. _

"_What are you doing? Stop!" Rosalie struggled with him as he wrapped a hand around her throat and pressed up against her. "Let go of me!" She pressed her hands against his chest but he was too strong, even in his drunken state._

"_Hey!" Suddenly he was dragged away from her and Rosalie watched as Floyd began to beat him._

"_Floyd, don't!" She ran forward and pulled him away. "He's not worth it." _

_The man staggered to his feet and spat blood from his mouth, holding his stomach. "What's your problem, man? Get your own date!" He shouted at Floyd._

_Rosalie had never seen Floyd so angry; he normally kept his emotions completely under control._

"_Get outta here!" Floyd shouted at Sam who just turned and stumbled away into the night. _

"_You okay?" He turned back to her._

_She sighed slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm fine." She kept her eyes downcast. "Thanks." She hated showing weakness._

"_Anytime, soldier." He smiled._

_She looked up and he offered her his arm. "Let me walk you back, Red." It was the first time he had used her nickname._

_Rosalie threaded her arm through his with a smile. "Sure thing, Tab." It was the first time she had used his nickname._

Since that moment all the awkwardness seemed to disappear and ironically, she now felt most comfortable with Tab. She had made him promise not to tell any of the men about that night which left all the men wondering what had caused the change in their none existent relationship to one of complete trust and loyalty.

"2nd Platoon fall out, you have three minutes." Lieutenant Winters ordered.

While all the men went in one direction, Rosalie went in another, towards the female barracks. The door slammed against the wall as she burst in angrily.

"Whoa, what's up with you?" Allie asked. She was the only one in there.

"That shit bag, Sobel. He took all our weekend passes and is making us run Currahee." She huffed while changing into black shorts and a white T-shirt.

"Again?" Allie asked.

"As usual. I gotta go before he takes my next pass for being late." Allie thought she was joking. She wasn't.

"All right, I'll see you later." She called as her friend walked out back to where the men were.

Since they had been thrown in with the men, the girls didn't have much time for each other and it saddened Rosalie to know that they had grown apart and weren't as close as they once were. The only time she really saw her was in Med Training and when they were back in barracks which was a time when sleep occupied them heavily.

"Nice legs, Baker." George Luz shouted to her as she walked over, breaking her from her train of thought. During her time with the men Luz had become her best friend of sorts.

"Oh thanks, Georgie-boy, that means a lot coming from you." Rosalie joked sarcastically, using the nickname she knew he hated. While walking to Curahee they passed through all of I-Companies' barracks, while some of the boys from 'I' teased the Easy boys about having their passes revoked, Marla walked around the corner and straight into Rosalie.

"Oh, sorr-" Rosalie started before Marla pushed her into Floyd.

"Watch where you're goin'!" Marla grunted.

Rosalie was about to push her back when Tab put his arm around her and began leading her away. "You keep pickin' fights with that tank of a woman an' you're gonna have to hire yourself a bodyguard." He joked in her ear.

Every day they ran Curahee and everyday Sobel did whatever he could to break their spirit, at least that's what it seemed like he was doing. If anyone ever fell he refused to let you help them, even when you got to the top, sweat pouring down you and gasping for breath he said you were too slow and sent you back down again. They didn't just run in their P.T. gear, they ran it with a full pack and in their uniforms.

Rosalie could feel the burn in the back of her throat when they weren't allowed to drink and she was gasping for air, it felt like every time she took a breath nails were being dragged along her windpipe. In the burning heat she would have done anything for a sip of water.

One Friday night they were walking back from a march when Denver "Bull" Randleman spoke up.

"I'm gonna say something." Bull said.

"To who?" Luz scoffed.

"Lieutenant Winters?" Bull asked.

"What is it?"

"Permission to speak, Sir?"

"Permission granted."

"Sir, we got nine companies, Sir."

"That we do."

"Well how come we're the only one marching every Friday night twelve miles, full pack in the pitch dark?"

"Why do you think, Private Randleman?"

"Because Captain Sobel hates us, Sir."

"Captain Sobel does not hate Easy Company, Private Randleman. He just hates you."

Everyone laughed.

"Thank you, Sir." Randleman smiled.

When they got back Sobel made them empty their canteens to see if any of them had a drink while marching. Christianson's canteen stopped pouring before everyone else's.

Sobel noticed. "Christianson, why is there no water in your canteen? You drank from your canteen didn't you?"

"Sir, I was just-"

"Lieutenant Winters, was this man ordered to not drink from his canteen during the Friday night march?"

"He was, Sir." Winters spoke regretfully.

"Private Christianson, you have disobeyed a direct order, you will fill your canteen and repeat all twelve miles of the march immediately."

"Yes, Sir."

"Fall out!"

During jump training a few months later he picked on Smokey more than any of the men in Easy. Afterwards, as Rosalie was heading back to barracks Tab shouted her over. "Hey, Rosalie!"

She jogged over to where he was stood with Shifty.

"What's up?" She wondered.

"Get a loada' this." Shifty nodded towards where Sobel was tearing into Smokey.

They watched as he sent Gordon to run Curahee by himself. They waited until Sobel left then Rosalie began to walk toward the mountain.

"What are you doing?" Floyd asked.

She turned around. "You think Smokey deserves to run that?"

Shifty shook his head.

"Of course not." Floyd smiled as he knew where she was going with this.

"Well then, let's go soldiers." She began to walk backwards.

The boys ran toward her grabbed her under the arms and began to carry her across the field despite her shrieks of protest. "Come on then, Leigh." They laughed.

It took them a while to catch up to Smokey but they did and they ran all the way up and all the way down with him.

The next day Sobel cancelled all their weekend passes again and Lieutenant Winters was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.

The boys and Rosalie could hardly believe it when Winters told them that Sobel had decided to give them and afternoon off and an extra meal before lectures.

"This ain't spaghetti." Perconte said.

"You ain't gotta eat it." Bill told him in his thick Philly accent.

A guy from another table reached over and grabbed Perconte's plate. "If you don't want it, I do."

"Hey, I'm eatin' here." Perconte snatched it back.

"Get outta here." Bill smacked his arm.

"I can't believe Sobel gave us the afternoon off, there's gotta be a catch." It turned out Rosalie was right.

A whistle blew and Captain Sobel walked in. Everyone stood to attention.

"Passes are cancelled! Easy Company is running up Currahee!" Sobel shouted. "Move! Move!"

"I knew it."

About five minutes into the run it became apparent the reason that Sobel had fed them spaghetti for lunch. Men were throwing up everywhere and Sobel couldn't wait to torture them for it. When he just wouldn't leave Bull alone George began to sing, Rosalie quickly joined in and within seconds the whole company was singing, much to Sobel's anger and disapproval.

_"We pull upon the risers,_

_We fall upon the grass,_

_We never land upon our feet,_

_We always hit our ass!_

_Highty-tighty, Christ almighty,_

_Who the hell are we?_

_Zim-zam God damn, we're airborne infantry!"_


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry this chapter took longer than the others, I've just gone back to college and have cheerleading practice 3-4 times a week now plus I've got a viral throat infection so I've been busy, busy, busy. **

**At first I intended to write this chapter all at once but in light of the reasons above I just did little bits at a time; that's why it took so long. **

**Again, I'd like to thank my reviewers, you guys are the best! **

**hodhod2011danger: **Reviews are like fuel, they keep me writing, so keep reviewing! Glad you enjoyed it.

**LauRa-ReaDinG-XoX: **I took your last review about detail into account because it's a real problem with my writing, I don't know what it is, I just find it hard to write long paragraphs describing a scene or a person. I'm one of those writers who jump straight into the action but I'm going to try my best in the future. To answer your question about romance – yes but I won't reveal who, you'll have to keep reading for that.

**QueenofSpades20: **No problem! Thanks for the kind words, and yes, there will be romance but, like I said above, keep reading to find out more.

**Cblols: **Glad you like it!

**Liliesshadow: **Thank you, I'll do my best to be as detailed as I can. Let me know what you think.

"Hey, Red, have we met before?" Luz asked Rosalie in the mess hall one morning.

"I don't think so, Luz." She shook her head. "Are you testin' out one of your chat up lines on me?" She quirked an eyebrow and a suspicious smile. Part of their friendship was Luz always flirting with her and everyone knew it so all the men around them chuckled and shook their heads as they thought this was one of those times. Neither of them expected anything to come of it, it was just harmless fun and they both knew that they didn't feel anything more than friendship toward each other.

"No really. You seem real familiar to me an' I just can't place it." He shook his head looking at her seriously. This was something that had been bothering him for weeks but he wanted to figure it out on his own.

"You know what? Come to think of it, you look kind of familiar too." She agreed. "Where you from?"

"Warwick, Rhode Island." He answered, thinking that wasn't it; he knew she was from South Carolina.

She looked up at him as if it was for the first time. "You're joshin' me! That'll be it! Do you ever visit Providence?" Her eyes lit up excitedly, remembering the city she loved.

"Yeah, all the time." He gave her a crooked grin, waiting for her to reveal how they knew each other.

"I go to- well, _went _to Brown." She smiled.

"No kidding? Brown University?"

"No, brown sugar." She rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Yes, Brown University!"

"Eey, we got an Ivy Leaguer on our hands." Bill Guarnere said, patting her on the back.

"Web's an Ivy Leaguer too." Liebgott said.

"Really? Where'd you go?" Rosalie asked Webster, delighted to find she had something in common with him.

"Harvard. What do you study?" He was equally delighted.

"Biology and Home Economics. You?"

"Literature."

At that moment Lt. Winters stood at the end of the table, interrupting the conversation the two ivy leaguers were sure to continue at the next opportunity. Everyone knew why Winters was there; it was no secret that every few days Sobel asked for the names of six soldiers for latrine duty. They waited for the names. "Powers, Toye, Gordon, Lipton, Malarkey and Guarnere, you're on latrine duty this week."

There was a chorus of, "Yes, Sir." Then Winters gave them all a curt nod and walked away.

"Unlucky." Rosalie commented, finishing her food.

Later that day Rosalie was walking back to barracks to find Sobel, Winters and Nixon waiting for her at the door. She stopped and saluted the three officers.

"Baker, this is a last minute inspection, please direct Captain Sobel to your footlocker." Winters told her.

"Yes, Sir." Rosalie led the men inside and stood at attention by her bunk. Captain Sobel began to ruthlessly search through her things. Her fists were clenching at her sides with the effort of containing her annoyance. After a few minutes of this he stood, apparently disappointed at finding no infractions then he spotted a pile of letters on her bedside table. He picked them up and flicked through them like a pack of cards. At that moment Rosalie mentally scolded herself for leaving them out like that.

"Private Baker, how is it you have so much time for correspondence?" Sobel asked holding the letters up.

"The letters are from my brothers, Sir. They're fighting in the Pacific."

"I don't believe I asked who they were from, Private." Sobel retorted angrily.

"Are personal letters to be considered contraband, Sir?" Winters defended.

"She's not a paratrooper yet, Lieutenant. She has no personal property." With that, Sobel walked out with the letters, leaving the officers with no choice but to follow him. However, Nixon gave her an apologetic look before going.

Rosalie could not believe what had just happened, in her eyes she had just been robbed by her CO. That was the last straw, she knew that Sobel was a jackass but she had never hated him. Taking something that kept her going, letters from her brothers letting her know they were still alive and well was out of order. This was not preparing them for war.

She strode out of the door angrily and searched for the three men that had just left; she saw their backs heading towards the mess hall and began to stomp over to them to get those letters back.

Bill Guarnere was just coming out of the men's barracks when he saw Rosalie marching furiously forward. He looked in the direction she was headed and saw none other than Captain Sobel, who had not yet seen her. Bill didn't have a good feeling about what she was going to do and so quickly intervened.

Rosalie came to a stop when her path was blocked by the Philly soldier. "Watcha' doin', Rosalie?" He asked as she tried to sidestep him unsuccessfully.

"I'm goin' to give Sobel a piece of my mind, now would you move outta' my way." She wasn't going to abandon this mission easily.

"What's he done now?" Bill asked, placing his hands on her shoulders to keep her in place.

"Stole somethin' from me." She was craning to look over his shoulder, a little less angry than before.

"What?"

"Letters." She finally gave up and looked at Bill with a sigh, knowing he wasn't going to let her go. "Letters from my brothers, they're marines at the Pacific. I need them back."

"Now, I know you're smarter than that, Rosalie." Bill folded his arms in front of him seriously.

"What?" She furrowed her brow in confusion at the dark haired man.

"Than to go an' give Sobel a reason to kick you out."

"What are you talking about?" It was her turn to fold her arms.

"You know what I'm talkin' about, if you go and start shoutin' the odds at that son of a bitch you'll be outta' here so fast you won't even know it."

Rosalie looked at the floor dejectedly.

"So, you got brothers?" Bill asked randomly after a few seconds silence.

Rosalie looked up and smiled, starting to forget her anger. "Yeah, two of em'."

"I got nine siblings." He laughed.

Rosalie's eyes widened.

"Come on, I'll tell you about em'." He put his arm around her led her away.

Eventually, it was time for the troopers to earn their wings. On the day of there were five jumps to complete and Rosalie was pretty nervous. In the aircraft, she found her stomach jumping around inside her body, her heart trying to break through her chest, all the while Skip telling jokes next to her. Skip was nervous too, so nervous that he didn't even notice the fact that she wasn't listening to him.

When it was time for them to stand, hook up and check their equipment, she completed the tasks methodically as she had been taught. Standing in the door was when she truly realised what she was about to do, for a tiny second she thought about refusing but then remembered what she had been told, _" any refusal within the aircraft or at the door and I guarantee you will be out of the airborne"._

Then she heard the words "GO! GO!" and she was out the door. Jumping out of an airplane wasn't at all how she imagined it; she thought it would be the most terrifying thing in the world. It was, but it was also the most exhilarating and all at once she was thankful and happy and excited at what she had just done, what she was still doing. Everything about the jump came to her naturally, like she was born to do this. When she sunk to the ground she realised one thing she would never have thought possible – Rosalie _loved _jumping out of airplanes.

After completing the next four jumps perfectly the soldiers had earned their wings and were rewarded with a party where beer was at an unlimited supply. The boys took great advantage of this, to Rosalie's amusement. All night they had been trying to bait her into their drinking games and after a few beers for herself she had agreed.

First seeing how long it took Bill to down his pint with his jump wings between his teeth, Rosalie had decidedly thought she could beat this. She was right. Bill finished his at five thousand, she finished hers at four. At this she slammed the glass down on the table and jumped up in victory while the guys cheered and Bill looked wide eyed at her. After a few seconds his face broke into a grin and he applauded her. She leaned over the table and kissed him on the cheek good naturedly. "Next time, Bill." She winked at him.

"Hey, Rosalie, what do you say?" Talb jerked his head to an open space in the room where some people were dancing to lively swing music.

Rosalie glanced at the dancers, then back at Talb and raised her eyebrows, surprised; she didn't have Talb down as the dancing type. "You and me?" She gestured between the two of them.

"Well, if you can't dance…" He smirked, trailing off.

"No, no, let's go, Talb." She took his hand and pulled him away. Once at an open space she didn't really know how to start, Floyd seemed to sense this and he gently put one hand on her waist, pulling her to him. She smiled and rested her hand on his shoulder, instantly at ease with the friend she had come to know and love. He took her free hand and gently began leading her in rhythm with the music. Something in the air seemed to change whilst they were dancing and the life around them blurred into the background.

When a more lively song came on, Luz tapped Talb on the shoulder. "May I cut in?"

Rosalie hadn't even seen him come over and her gaze shifted to Luz over Talb's shoulder, surprised. Luz seemed oblivious to the awkward tension that Talb and Rosalie were feeling at the sudden development in their relationship, a spark that they never even suspected was there.

As her usual defence mechanism, Rosalie defused the situation with humour. "Sure, he's all yours." She took a step back and gestured between the two un-amused men.

"Get over here." Luz grabbed her hand and pulled her to him with a playful smirk.

Surprisingly, Luz had turned out to be a good dancer and Rosalie had no trouble keeping up; ever since she was a little girl her mother had insisted on dance lessons.

Before the night was over Colonel Sink had come to congratulate them all on getting their wings, Rosalie had played a few rounds of darts with Malarkey and Muck, and won a pack of cigarettes at a game of poker with Liebgott and Toye. All in all, Rosalie decided that this was the most fun she'd had in a while.

Back at barracks that night, Rosalie and Allie were the only ones in there. They figured all the other girls were still out celebrating. The two girls hadn't had any time together for months so had decided to head back early; Rosalie wanted to talk to Allie about Floyd anyway.

"Okay, so there's something I have to tell you." Rosalie said as they began to get ready for bed.

"What?" Allie sat on the bed opposite Rosalie curiously.

"Something weird happened with Floyd tonight."

Allie knew who she was talking about, she had met some of the men on weekend passes and in the mess hall and Floyd was one of the few Rosalie had introduced her to. "Weird how?"

"I don't know… different weird."

"What do you mean? Come on, stop being so vague!" Allie begged.

"Well, we were dancing and it just felt… strange." Rosalie elaborated uncomfortably.

"Strange?"

"Yeah, it was like we both zoned out."

"How come? What happened?"

"I don't know. You know how I told you when I first met him; it was real awkward between us?" Rosalie was playing with her hands in her lap absent-mindedly.

"Yeah."

"Well, we've been comfortable with each other for ages now and it was almost too comfortable tonight and we both knew it." She looked at her hands, remembering the exact moment Floyd had snapped out of his trance when they were disturbed.

"Both?"

"I'm sure the look on his face mirrored mine, Allie." She looked her friend dead in the eye.

"Is this good?"

"I don't know. I don't even know what it means! What if things get awkward again?" Rosalie stood up and ran a hand through her hair.

"They won't." Allie assured, putting a hand on Rosalie's shoulder.

"I hope not."

Going to bed that night, Rosalie didn't get much sleep, over analysing everything that had happened within that few minutes with Floyd Talbert. She decided the next time she saw him she would just act like nothing had changed and hoped he would do the same.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, guys. I wrote most of this in one night and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Let me know what you think though.**

**On the 23rd of January I'll be going to Amsterdam for four days with college so during that time there won't be and update. Just thought I'd warn you now in case I forget to mention it later.**

**Immortalrmy: **Hey Becca,I was really excited to see a review from you because I have read your BOB story and I love it so much! I'm really sad that it's almost over but you did an amazing job with it. I haven't been reading it from the beginning, I think I started reading it about a week or two ago and it only took me a few days to get through it. I have to apologise for not reviewing, I was planning on doing an epic review on the very last chapter. Anyway, thank you, I really appreciate it and I totally agree, there are _so _not enough Talbert stories on here. He's one of my favourites, along with Luz, Guarnere, Babe, Perconte and so many others! (Too many). I hope you keep reading and enjoy it! PS. Please update yours really soon.

**Liliesshadow: **Thank you, chick! I will.

**Chapter 5**

_June 23rd 1943_

_Camp Mackall, N.C._

Ever since that night at the party, things had been a little bit weird between Rosalie and Floyd and most of the men noticed it. After they had gotten over the initial awkwardness everything was just business between them; they were trying to distance themselves from any situation that would put their relationship in the same place it was that night – forbidden territory.

_It was the day after the party and all day Talbert and Leigh had avoided each other. Now, Floyd was forced to speak to her as Lt. Winters, oblivious to their situation, wanted to speak to her and had ordered Talb to find her. He came across her in the mess hall playing cards with Liebgott as Skip ate. _

_She knew he was avoiding her and vice versa so Rosalie tried not to acknowledge the blonde soldier until he spoke directly to her._

"_Lt. Winters wants to speak to you, Baker." He didn't know why he addressed her that way. As if she wasn't even his friend, but just another soldier he had to deliver a message to._

_He didn't have time to gauge her reaction as he turned and walked away pretty much as soon as the last word tumbled out of his mouth. _

_Rosalie's mouth formed a small 'o' at the shock of him actually talking to her and then the way he spoke to her. As he walked away she looked back down at her cards, her brows knitting together in confusion and slight hurt._

_Liebgott watched Floyd's back walk away with a confused frown, cigarette hanging from his mouth, then turned back to face Rosalie, shifting the position of his cards._

"_What was that about?" Skip asked from next to her, peaking at her cards._

"_Nothing." Rosalie stood and gave her cards to him. "Take over for me." _

_After that if they didn't need to communicate unnecessarily, they didn't and when they did, it was short and not so sweet. _

At the moment Easy Company were in training, sat in a ditch which had perfect cover and was a perfect position to ambush the enemy team. Rosalie was next to Luz, both of them overlooking the side of the ditch and constantly glancing around for any sign of movement on their side.

"So, what's up with you and Floyd?" Luz asked nonchalantly, subtly glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"What do you mean?" Rosalie was barely paying attention. She had made a resolve to block out that the dance with Floyd had ever happened.

Luz looked at her now. "What do you mean 'what do I mean'?"

She looked at him, eyebrows raised.

"2nd Platoon, move out!" Winters whispered from the other end of the ditch.

"Look, you can't tell me nothing's going on. I know you." Luz clarified before leaving her there.

She immediately followed and joined him in their position at the back of the formation. "Oh you do, do you?"

"Come on, what has it been, like a year now? Of course I know you."

"Fine. Maybe you know me, but what does that have to do with Floyd." She asked.

"Well, for one thing, you haven't called him Talb for a while." He didn't look at her while speaking, just glancing around for the enemy, whereas she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He did seem to know her so well and it shocked her, she had never really thought about it before but George could read her like a book. This was something she wasn't sure if she liked.

"So?" She challenged his previous statement.

Now he looked at her, giving her an expression that said "do I really have to explain myself?"

When she just carried on staring at him expectantly he sighed. "Before you two got to know each other, you were all serious, and one of the things that you did was never call each other by your nicknames. He never called you Red or Leigh and you never called him Talb. Simple as."

Now that she thought about it, he was right. She couldn't remember a time in the past month that he had called her Red or Leigh or even Doc. It was always, Rosalie or Baker and that was it.

She was snapped from her train of thought when the enemy stood from their cover in front of them.

"Shit." Luz cursed quietly.

The assessor came out and said, "Captain, you just got yourself killed along with 95% of your company. What's your outfit?" walking next to Sobel.

"Easy Company, 2nd battalion, 506." Sobel admitted, embarrassed.

"Drop three wounded men and return to the assembly point." The assessor ordered.

Everyone looked pretty pissed off; Rosalie would have been too if she hadn't been so distracted by what Luz had just pointed out to her. She was surprised to not hear her name when Sobel called out the three men he would drop. For the rest of the day she tried to focus on training but was finding it hard.

Now that they had been relocated to Camp Mackall Rosalie and Allie hardly ever saw each other. Fox Company was in the same camp but the girls were now separated into barracks by what company they were in. Rosalie shared a building with the boys of Easy but was in a separate room. As she saw the boys all the time in training and barracks Rosalie tried to use whatever free time she had to see Allie. They hadn't been there that long and she already missed her. Mostly they saw each other in passing but only had time for a smile or wave.

Sometime later found them on the train to New York but from there they had no idea where they would be going. Rosalie had chosen to sit with Eugene, a fellow medic and a man that somehow had a relaxing aura about him. He always made her feel calm and assured, she didn't know what it was about him, he just seemed so… easy going but at the same time serious and capable.

At first most of the journey had been spent in a comfortable silence until Allie joined them. Rosalie was glad; soon they would be split up, the next week or so might even be the last time she ever saw her friend.

"Where do you think they're sending us?" The cheerful brunette asked.

"I dunno. Could be anywhere." Gene answered her, staring out the window, watching the countryside flash by. Eugene and Allie had previously met in medical training at Toccoa.

"I hope it's Europe; I heard it's pretty bad there." Allie replied.

"Don't worry, Al, wherever you end up you'll be sure to see some action." I assured her with a pat on the shoulder.

_September 6th 1943_

_Brooklyn Naval Shipyard_

Sailing past the Statue of Liberty on that troop ship was when it really hit home that for some this would be their last glimpse of America before the war was over or they were injured badly enough to be sent home, others wouldn't be so lucky, this was their last glimpse of America ever. Some wouldn't be coming home at all.

Rosalie spent a short while on deck with Allie before they both departed to find their bunks below.

Squeezing through the narrow, crowded space wasn't hard for Rosalie because of her size; she could get through most gaps without causing a fuss until she came to some faces she recognised.

"Decided to finally join us, princess?" Joe Toye teased from his bunk a few rows off the ground, reminding her of Noah.

"Don't start that one, Toye." She warned, not wanting yet another nickname, especially not that one.

He grinned down at her. "I saved you a bunk up here, sport." He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder above him.

For a moment, that name stopped her in her tracks. That's what Jack calls her, even in his letters. Jack and Noah had been fighting for a while now but as long as they carried on writing to her she knew they were okay.

"_Okay, sport, we're not gonna go easy on you so watch your back!" Jack shouted to Rosalie from across the field. _

"_What makes you think I'm gonna go easy on you!" She taunted back cockily._

"_Watch yourself, princess." Noah warned._

_At sixteen Rosalie was happy, she had plently of friends, a boyfriend to go steady with, good grades and a bright future ahead of her. To make it better Jack had just come back from his first period of training with the marines, and as a lucky surprise, Noah had come with him. They were only back for a few days so she intended to make the most of it._

_Jack and Noah glanced at each other and exchanged some unknown signal before charging their little sister head on to retrieve the football from between her fragile hands._

_Instead of flinching, or dropping the ball and running the other way like most other girls, she took it as a challenge and grinned mischievously. She took off at a run toward both her brothers and at the last minute threw herself to the floor, while at their speed they couldn't immediately stop and ran straight past her. _

_As soon as she lost sight of their feet she jumped up, sprinted to the other end of the field and threw the ball down, earning her point._

Not realising what had made her zone out, Toye clicked his fingers in front of her face, "Leigh? You okay down there?"

She blinked. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She began to climb to the bunk above Joe. Laying there she smiled gently while the boys talked. It came to her that she didn't mind if Joe called her sport or princess, after all, he did remind her of a big brother and she needed that while hers were so far away.

After a few hours' sleep, Rosalie woke up to the boys still in conversation, only there were some new additions to the group.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Skip smiled on the bunk across from her. She rubbed her eyes and decided to tune in to the conversation.

"Hey guys, I'm glad we're going to Europe." Toye got out his knife. "Hitler gets one of these straight across his windpipe, changes Thanksgiving to Joe Toye Day and pays me ten grand a year for the rest of my fucking life."

"In your dreams." Rosalie smirked.

"Go back to sleep." He teased back.

"What if we don't get to Europe? What if they send us to North Africa?" Smokey said.

"My brother's in North Africa, he says it's hot there." Bill told them, cig in hand.

"Oh really? It's hot in Africa?" Malarkey scoffed, sarcastically, earning a smile from Leigh.

"Shut up. The point is, it don't matter where we go, once we get into combat the only person you can trust is yourself and the fella next to ya'." Bill said.

"As long as he's a paratrooper." Toye commented.

"Or she." Rosalie corrected him.

"What if that paratrooper turns out to be Sobel?" Luz asked.

"Then you're one unlucky bastard, Luz." Rosalie joked, half serious as he climbed past her to get to his bunk.

"If I'm next to Sobel in combat I'll hook up with some other officer like Winters."

"I like Winters, he's a good man but when the bullets start flyin' I don't know if I want a Quaker doin' my fightin' for me." Bill said.

"How do you know he's a Quaker?" Rosalie asked.

"He ain't Catholic." Bill replied standing up.

"Neither's Sobel."

"That prick's a son of Abraham." Bill laughed.

Liebgott, who had been silent for the rest of the conversation, looked at Bill then, his feet dangling over the edge of his bunk. "He's what?"

"He's a Jew." Bill told him as if it was obvious.

Liebgott laughed humourlessly. "Fuck." He cursed as if he couldn't believe what he heard, he was pissed off. He jumped down from his bunk and got in Bill's face. "I'm a Jew."

"Congratulations. Now get your nose outta my face." Bill pushed him back.

"Come on boys, calm down." Rosalie jumped down and stepped closer to them.

Liebgott lunged for Bill and everyone close to them, including her, tried to separate them. During the struggle, Rosalie was closest, trying to get in between Lieb and Bill. As a result of this she took an elbow to the face.

"Stop! One of you idiots hit Rosalie!" Talb shouted.

At this everyone stopped and looked toward her. She was holding her cheek which was tingling from the shock.

"Aw, geez, Rosalie, I'm sorry." Liebgott apologised stepping toward her.

"Yeah, Leigh. You okay?" Bill asked eyes downcast.

Rosalie still hadn't spoke, the blow was pretty hard and she was still feeling it.

"Hey, Red?" Luz asked coming to stand in front of her with both hands bracing her shoulders. "Focus. You okay?"

She blinked a few times, looking around, she couldn't see Floyd but his was the first voice she had heard. Instead she saw a lot of concerned eyes trained on her, George in front of her, Bill and Liebgott either side of him and Toye flanking her shoulder.

"Leigh?" Toye asked, worried.

"I'm okay." She finally said, removing her hand from her face, the men didn't look convinced.

Luz smiled. "We'll see." He put his arm around her shoulder and took her to find Roe; her cheek was already beginning to bruise.

As soon as Floyd saw Rosalie get lost in the group of men crushing in to try and separate Liebgott and Guarnere he jumped down from his bunk and pushed in towards her. He heard the thump as an unknown elbow connected with her face and before he knew what he was doing he shouted and pulled the men apart roughly.

As soon as everyone had seen her holding her cheek and looking around dazed the fight was forgotten and she was centre of attention. Whilst she was slowly beginning to focus he melted into the background and watched as she looked around confused before Luz led her away.


	6. Chapter 6

**A lot of time passes in this one; it's from the time they arrive in England to D-day.**

**By my standards, in the amount of time this chapter was written and the length of it, I'd say it is a pretty good gift for you before I sail off to Amsterdam on Monday. Return with reviews for me when I get back. **

**To the guys who reviewed anyway, you are awesome. Enough said.**

**Londelle: **Thanks for the review, Hun, and you're very welcome. Glad you love it, it's always nice to here and I hope you stick with me and keep reviewing!

**Endipseles: **Thank you, loved this review! You just made my day, long reviews are the best. I thought it was important not to make Sobel a complete evil villain type guy because I've seen a lot of stories that do that and I think people may forget that he was as real as any other of the Easy Company Veterans. Without him they wouldn't have been the soldiers that they were; he put them through some tough shit and prepared them for what they had to go through in a war. Hope you like this one.

**Chapter 6**

_September 18th 1943_

_Aldbourne, England._

A lot of the time spent in England was time spent training; it had to be with one of the biggest invasions in the history of American warfare coming up. The troops were updated on their hand to hand combat skills, weapons training, medical and first aid training if needed, war strategies were repeated over and over to ensure that each and every outfit knew what its mission was to the detail.

Surprisingly, Rosalie had more free time to herself than she did at Camp Mackall and she was using this time wisely in her opinion. It was spent _still _avoiding Floyd and a lot of this time was spent with Allie.

On one particular training exercise they were split into two squads, Sobel commanding one and Winters the other. As luck would have it, Rosalie was landed with Sobel, along with Luz, Perconte and Skip. When jogging through a field they came to a sudden stop behind the Captain.

"Why is there a fence here?" Sobel questioned worriedly. "There should be no fence here. Tipper?" He yelled.

"Yes, Sir." Tipper replied from next to him.

"Give me the map." He snatched it from Tipper's hands. "Perconte, Luz, get the men, take cover behind those trees." He pointed at a big group of trees further down the field.

"Yes, Sir. Move out." Luz ordered and the men followed.

Sobel looked at the map. "There should be no fence here."

Jogging down to the trees, there were murmurs of "this idiot's lost again" and "what a schmuck!" coming from the men.

Rosalie, tired and frustrated from the extra weight of her medic kit, rubbed her face whilst Perconte and Skip convinced Luz to impersonate Major Horton for Sobel. At first she didn't think he'd do it until she heard the familiar impression.

"Is there a problem, Captain Sobel?" George yelled from behind the trees.

Her head snapped up to him, wide eyed. There was no way he could get away with this. Of course, Sobel couldn't prove anything as long as no one talked.

"Who said that? Who broke silence?" Sobel yelled.

Rosalie shook her head at Luz's foolishness.

"What is the god damn hold up, Mr Sobel?" Luz yelled.

"A fence, Sir, god, a barbed wire fence." Sobel shouted back. This caused her eyes to widen once more, this time at the fact that he had actually fallen for it. What a moron.

"Oh now that dog just ain't gonna hunt. Now you cut that fence and get this god damn platoon on the move!"

Rosalie laughed silently at George's choice of words, she was sure Major Horton had said those exact phrases around them once and she had to inwardly applaud George for his resourcefulness.

"Yes, Sir!" Sobel shouted back.

Sobel cut the fence and they finally got moving. Rosalie couldn't escape the amused grin on her face from the thought that Luz had actually pulled that stunt off. But by the time they got to the others they had moved ahead without them.

Captain Sobel got into a lot of trouble by cutting that fence, he'd let a load of cows escape from someone's field and he wasn't happy about it getting the blame.

One warm afternoon Rosalie stood off to the side as Malarkey, Perconte and Randleman played basketball at the side of the road. Winters and Nixon were at the other side talking quietly.

"Hey, Rosalie, you ever play ball?" Randleman yelled over to her. As it was, she hadn't, this was something that Jack and Noah had never taught her.

"As a matter of fact I haven't." She shook her head.

"You mean those brothers of yours never taught you?" Perco asked.

"Nope." She shook her head again.

"You fancy it?" Malarkey joined in.

Rosalie jumped at the chance to learn so she could kick Jack and Noah's asses when she got back. "Sure." She smiled and unbuttoned her army shirt so that she was now in her khaki vest and pants.

Bull threw the ball her way and she caught it easily.

"Come here, I'll teach you how to shoot." Malarkey laughed as she stood in front of their makeshift hoop.

He stood behind her and placed his hands over hers on the ball. She playfully pushed back. "If I didn't know any better, Malark, I'd say you were takin' advantage of me."

He smirked. "Focus, Red." He moved her hands with his and showed her how to throw, she made the basket.

"Yes!" She turned and hugged him. Perconte high fived her with a laugh.

Then two soldiers drove up and handed something unknown to Winters.

"You heard about Winters?" Webster asked Leigh and Malarkey as he jogged up behind them a couple of days later.

"What about him?" Rosalie asked, squinting in the sun.

"He's been court martialled." Web explained.

"What? Why?" Malarkey questioned.

"Sobel did it, something about Winters not accepting a punishment so he requested trial by court martial. We've lost him to Mess until this whole thing blows over."

"Shit." Rosalie cursed. "What if it doesn't go his way?"

"Then he doesn't make the jump." Malarkey guessed.

"Yep." Web confirmed.

"I bet that's what that piece of paper was the other day." Malarkey said.

Some of the troops had a discussion about refusing to jump with Sobel; he was incompetent and too jumpy in the field, he would get people killed. Both Rosalie and Floyd were present at this discussion but both ignored each other as was the usual recently so the men thought nothing of it.

"We'd all better be clear of the consequences." Lipton warned.

"I don't care about the consequences." Sergeant John Martin told them.

"John, we could be lined up against a wall and shot. I'm ready to face that and every one of us had better be too." Lipton carried on.

"I will not follow that man into combat." Bill stated.

"I won't follow him into water, let alone combat." Rosalie agreed.

"Me neither." Randleman added in his southern drawl with a serious nod.

"Alright." Lipton nodded. "Let's do it."

They all wrote their requests to be transferred from Easy Company and signed them.

"Good luck." Lip said and got up.

The same day found them stood in Colonel Sink's office being ripped into by the man himself. "I ought to have you all shot!" He shouted at them. "There's nothing less than an act of mutiny when we prepare for the god damn invasion of Europe. All of you N.C.O.s have disgraced the 101st airborne; consider yourselves lucky that we are on the eve of the biggest action in the history of warfare; which leaves me no choice but to spare your lives. Now get out of my office and get out of my sight."

They saluted.

"Get." He grumbled to them.

Outside, Winters was checking supplies for the mess department and as a show of their respect for the man, not the rank, each and every one of them saluted.

After their request for a transfer and Winter's court martial, Colonel Sink saw fit to reassign Sobel to command the school of Chilton Foliat, to everyone's great relief. Lt. Meehan was now put in charge of Easy Company.

Rosalie and Allie were walking through the picturesque English village they had been stationed in. As the weeks passed, they knew it was coming closer to the big jump and they would be separated. Throughout this whole experience they had been together from the moment they stepped on the military bus in their home towns to right now, preparing for the European invasion and now they were practically like sisters. Rosalie had never wondered what it was like to have a sister in her whole life, her two brothers had never disappointed her and she had never wished that they were girls, so she couldn't miss what she had never had and had never thought of. But now that she had a sister she couldn't imagine not having one, the idea of not having Allie around now was baffling to her even though she knew that soon she would have to get used to it. It was very unlikely that they would see each other on the battlefield.

"Look, Rosalie, the big jump's coming up and I think we should get our goodbyes out of the way now, you know? So we can have clear heads when it's time to throw ourselves into the battlefield from the sky." Allie started with a humourless smile.

"What are you talking about? Goodbyes?" Rosalie protested. "Who says its goodbye, Allie? You don't know what will happen out there."

Allie stopped and forced Rosalie to face her with a hand on her shoulder. "Exactly. We don't know what's gonna happen out there so we should say the things we wanna say now before we lose the chance."

"You can say whatever you want to me but I'm not saying goodbye to you, Allie. I refuse." Rosalie turned her head away stubbornly.

Allie sighed. "Okay, well, Rosalie, you and me have been through this whole experience together, granted, your CO was _a lot _worse than mine and I just wanted to tell you thanks for being there, I could always talk to you and stuff and you remind me of home, having a girl to gossip with and all that crap. Oh, and I don't think I ever thanked you for having my back with that Marla chick when we first got here when you barely knew me. You've become like a sister to me through this whole thing and it would really suck if you didn't know that and never got to hear it."

Through the whole speech, Rosalie didn't look at her best friend once, she was angry; Allie was saying goodbye to her. She shouldn't do that; it's like admitting defeat before they've even gotten in the plane. Well, Rosalie wouldn't, she _couldn't. _So instead of replying, she just nodded at her and walked away.

_May 31st 1944_

_Upottery, England_

The paratroopers had moved to set up camp at Upottery to get ready for the jump. Some were anxious and scared whilst others couldn't wait to start fighting the Germans. Lt. Buck Compton had now joined them and he was a good man, everyone liked him. During the time they were in Upottery they were briefed on their mission for once they had landed in Normandy over and over again. Spare time was spent studying the strategy. Easy Company was assigned to destroy a German garrison in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.

"Alright, boys I'm gonna say eight. Throw 'em Baker." Buck ordered and Rosalie threw the dice in the cardboard box.

It landed a six. "Oh! That's two packs, Sir." Luz grinned at the Lieutenant.

"Lt. Compton, may I speak with you privately for a minute." Winters strolled over and took Compton away for reprimand for gambling with the soldiers.

That was probably the most fun Luz and Rosalie had together before the jump, beating the ranking officer shooting craps.

_June 4th 1944_

_Upottery Airfield._

Rosalie was standing with Johnny Martin when mail was handed out by Vest a couple of hours before the jump was scheduled, he was given a letter from his wife and after reading it his reaction was "Aw, Christ." Whilst shaking his head and looking at the ground.

"What?" Rosalie asked, checking her gear.

"It's Bill's brother, the one in Italy." Johnny answered.

"Henry?"

"Yeah, he's KIA."

Rosalie dropped her gear and looked up, devastated for Bill. "Shit."

"Do we tell him?" Johnny asked.

"I'd want to know, Johnny."

"Yeah, but hours before we jump? Jesus." Martin cursed.

"I'll do it." Rosalie resolved.

"I don't think it's a good idea." Johnny shook his head.

"Johnny, I got two brothers in the marines, I'd want to know. I'm not gonna' keep this from him."

Before she had chance to find Bill Lt. Meehan began shouting orders from the top of a jeep. "Easy Company, listen up! Come on; gather round gentlemen, and lady." Meehan looked at Rosalie pointedly. "The channel coast is covered in rain and fog, high winds on the drop zone, no jump tonight. We're on a twenty-four hour stand down." He finished.

"Oh come on." Everyone started to moan and complain.

After hearing the news that the jump wouldn't happen tonight everyone had been gathered into a tent to watch a movie, Rosalie didn't really pay any attention to it but found it amusing how interested Toye was next to her.

"I can't believe we have to wait another night." Rosalie moaned, lighting a cigarette. "People are gonna be nervous, well, even more nervous than they were before. Doesn't make my job any easier. If you can't focus, you get wounded. Jesus, it's gonna be a fuckin' hell hole out there."

"Well, what did you expect, Leigh, a fuckin' carnival with candyfloss and popcorn?" Toye retorted sarcastically, trying to pay attention to the movie.

"Shut up." She took a puff from her cig unoffended and got up to leave the tent, she needed some fresh air.

Pacing in the almost dark air outside the tent, Rosalie knew she had to talk to Floyd but she had no idea what to say, if she said the wrong thing, it could ruin them forever. She missed him dearly and was terrified of what would happen tomorrow if she didn't speak to him before they made the jump. Still as clueless as ever about what was going on between them she carried on pacing; trying to think of something, anything that could fix them.

"Rosalie?" She heard a familiar voice behind her.

She whirled around to find Floyd looking at her awkwardly, determined but still awkward. She couldn't think of anything to say but it didn't matter. Floyd had hoped she wouldn't interrupt him; he wanted to make things right with her as quickly as possible. He fumbled with his hat in his hands and alternated between glancing at her and down at his hands whilst he spoke. "I was thinking, since we're making the jump tomorrow I might not have another chance to do this and I wanted to make things… I don't know… right between us I guess." He opened his mouth to carry on but she held a hand up with a barely there, small smile.

She threw her cigarette on the ground and stubbed it out with her boot. "Stop right there, Talbert. You're talking like one or both of us are going to die tomorrow and I'm not quite ready to face that." She stepped closer to him, suddenly knowing exactly what she wanted to say, but not wanting to say it at that moment. Rosalie looked up into his eyes, he stared back seriously. "So, right now, I'm just gonna say I'll see you in France and we'll talk then, okay?" She couldn't accept that either of them would die tomorrow, regardless of what had happened between them recently he had become a big part of her life, she couldn't imagine never meeting him, or any of the boys for that matter.

He didn't reply or meet her eyes as he looked toward the ground, not wanting to miss this opportunity to fix things with her.

"Floyd, promise me." She demanded, taking one of his hands in one of hers. This caused him to look at her, he seemed to be staring right into her soul, his resolve quickly fading and eventually he nodded.

"You have my word."

She dropped his hand with a bit more of a smile and backed up. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Rosalie."

Walking back toward her tent Rosalie saw Bill storming across the field, where to she had no idea but she suddenly remembered the bad news she had yet to deliver. "Bill!" She yelled.

He didn't turn.

She jogged to catch up to him. "Hey, Bill!"

He looked over his shoulder and stopped, his back to her when she was a few feet away. "Bill, I've got some bad news, I'm not gonna' drag it out 'cause it's too important."

His shoulders moved with the effort at containing his anger in his heavy breathing.

"Johnny got a letter from his wife and-" She started but Bill interrupted her, turning around now.

"I know." Look on his face was half way between rage and devastation and it broke Rosalie's heart to see it. "I know all about it, I found Johnny's letter."

"Oh, Bill, I'm so sorry." She touched his shoulder, comfortingly.

"Why didn't he tell me?" He kept his voice quiet for her sake but the anger and betrayal in it was unmistakeable.

"He didn't want to upset you right before the jump, he was thinkin' of you, Bill, honest." She tried to explain.

"Upset me!" He didn't bother to hold back now, unable to. She didn't mind, Rosalie knew he had to get his emotion out somehow. "Jesus Christ! The damn krauts have killed my brother and Johnny didn't want to upset me."

_June 5th 1944_

_Upottery Airfield._

Whilst everyone was preparing themselves for the jump Rosalie couldn't stop thinking about Floyd when Allie popped into her head. She suddenly realised why it was so important for them to say goodbye to each other before they went. She would see the boys again in France but not her. That was very unlikely. She got up and frantically searched for Allie.

She saw her preparing her gear with some men from her company. "Allie!" She yelled from where she stood.

Allie looked up and just stared confused at Rosalie who began gesturing for her to come over.

When Allie got to her she pulled her into a fierce hug worthy of family. "I love you like a sister, Allison James so don't get yourself killed out there. I swear I'll be pissed at you for the rest of my life if you don't make it through this with me. When all this shit's over and done with I'm gonna need you. This isn't goodbye; it's more like see you later. Good luck." Rosalie pulled back, turned and walked away.

That would be the last time they saw each other until they were both war hardened and stronger than either ever thought they could be.

Twenty minutes later Rosalie and Eugene began handing out air sickness pills; this signalled how close the jump was for the men.

When it was time for them to load into their planes Winters made one final mini speech to send the soldiers off with. "2nd Platoon, listen up. Good luck, God bless you. I'll see you in the assembly area." It was simple but effective just because it came from him.

Rosalie saw Floyd at the other side of the crowd and she caught his eye. "See you on the other side?" She yelled.

"See you on the other side." He confirmed.

Rosalie was the second to last one in the plane which meant she would be the second to jump out. She settled herself in next to Winters as the plane rumbled into the air and for the first time in her life prayed, really prayed, for herself and her fellow soldiers in the hope that someone would be listening and keep not just her loved ones safe, but all of the paratroopers making the jump on D-day.

"_**Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:**_

_**You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.**_

_**The eyes of the world are upon you.**_

_**Good luck!**_

_**And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."**_

**Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower**

**Supreme Allied Commander**


End file.
